PIQUA — The driveways at Upper Valley Medical Center and UVMC satellites are lined with red, white and blue as Veterans Day approaches. Nearly 600 American flags are on display as part of the hospital’s observance of Veterans Day/Week.
The UVMC memorial flags project gave hospital employees, volunteers and medical staff an opportunity to sponsor a flag in honor of a veteran or loved one currently serving in the military. For a minimal fee, flag sponsors will be able to keep one of the memorial flags when they are removed later this month, and their honorees will be recognized on monitors in the hospital cafeteria on Veterans Day, Nov. 11. Proceeds from the project will be donated to Hospice’s “We Honor Veterans” program.
In other special Veterans Week activities, a staff lunch-and-learn program will be presented by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Lt. Dave Norman of the Miami County Sheriff’s Department, on Monday, Nov. 7. Norman was a Marine Security Guard stationed at the American Embassy in Saigon in 1975. He was among the last 11 Marines rescued by helicopter from the rooftop of the American Embassy during the harrowing evacuation from Vietnam when the war ended. His “Out of Saigon” presentation shares a gripping account of his last days in Viet Nam along with other memorable experiences in the Marines.
The patriotic week will conclude with a Veterans Day celebration in the hospital cafeteria on Friday, Nov. 11, featuring representatives from Honor Flight, Hospice’s “We Honor Veterans” program and the Miami Valley Veterans Museum.
